I wrote this article for Generation Opportunity to provide succinct information about the debates involving the Patriot Act up to this point. Due to changes on the website, some links may be dead or inaccurate.
On Sunday night, the Senate let Section 215 of the Patriot Act expire, ending government bulk collection of phone data.
Along with Section 215, which allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect and monitor phone records in bulk, two other provisions of the Patriot Act expired. The first is a “roving wiretap” provision, which allowed federal agencies to monitor an individual person rather than a specific phone or device. The second is the “lone wolf” provision, which allowed federal agencies to target individuals who were suspected terrorists but who did not have any direct ties to terrorist groups.
Although the expiration of these provisions was a big win for American privacy, some, including the Obama Administration are panicking over what they view as a breach in security. White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said: “We call on the Senate to ensure this irresponsible lapse in authorities is as short-lived as possible.”
Pressure has been mounting for weeks regarding the expiration of these government surveillance programs: would Congress pass some sort of surveillance reform, reauthorize the provisions, or simply let them expire?
On May 13th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the USA Freedom Act, which would have reauthorized Section 215 of the Patriot Act but also would have significantly reformed bulk data collection by requiring warrants for specific people or devices of which it had a “reasonable, articulable suspicion.”
Even though the USA Freedom Act had passed the House, it still had to pass the Senate to get through Congress. And that’s when the real drama began as Senate debated the issues of government surveillance and privacy into Saturday morning, ultimately rejecting the USA Freedom Act, as well as failing to reauthorize Section 215 of the Patriot Act. It then reconvened on May 31st, hours before the expiration of Section 215 to continue the debate, failing at a second attempt to pass the USA Freedom Act and ultimately letting Section 215 expire.
This week, the Senate will consider the USA Freedom act once again, with some potential reforms to adjust for the expiration of Section 215, including added oversight to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court.